Checkmating Islamists in Bangladesh

The citizens of India could use all the fora available today to convey to the Islamists that they better not try to tamper with freedom and democracy.

By JAGDISH N. SINGH

March 11, 2013 22:22

4 minute read.

Bangladesh_521.
(photo credit: David Zetler)

Ever since Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina instituted a tribunal to
bring to justice the elements accused of committing atrocities against fellow
citizens during the civil war of 1971, Jamaat-e-Islami activists have
intensified their agitation, at times violent, across the nation with the aim of
overthrowing her government. This has resulted in large-scale violence claiming,
according to one estimate, more than 100 lives between February 5 and March 7
alone.

The opposition of the Jamaat to the Hasina government is not
difficult to understand. The Awami League has had a vision of freedom and
democracy.

Bangladesh has been known for its composite, pluralist
tradition. Islam reached this region in the 13th century, prior to which the
land was under the rule of famous Sena and Buddhist Pala dynasties, resulting in
the creation of a composite culture in the region. Today Muslims in the country
account for approximately 148.6 million people, some 90 percent of the total
population. But radical sectarian groups such as the Deobandi movement and the
Ahle Hadith have little influence across its social spectrum. The majority of
Muslims do not subscribe to fundamentalist doctrines. They support Hindus’ and
Ahmadis’ right to practise their faiths without fear or persecution. They join
the Shi’ites in commemorating the martyrdom of Ali’s sons Hasan and
Husayn.

In tune with this historical-social tradition, the constitution
of Bangladesh provides for freedom of religion. It supports the laws concerning
marriage, divorce and adoption based on the religion of the person concerned.
There are no legal restrictions on marriage between members of different
faiths.

The Hasina government sees to it that it is fair to all schools
of religion, and that there is no radicalization of any particular version of
Islam in the country.

The Jamaat does not approve. It’s values are of a
Wahabi-Salafist-influenced Deobandi order. It finds in the Awami League’s vision
the main obstacle to its agendas and would like to remove it from power. During
2001-2006 the Jamaat joined the BNP-led coalition government in Dhaka and
succeeded in banned the Ahmadiya literatures. The Islamists would like to repeat
such an arrangements, to impose their agenda.

Pertinently, the Islamists
have been on an Islamist mission in the region since long. One study suggests
they were better able to implement their agenda when the region was part of
Pakistan. In 1947 Hindus accounted for one thirds of the population in then-East
Pakistan. By 1971 their number came down to onefifth.

The Islamist
influence on t3e successive regimes in Pakistan led the government to such
policies and programs as resulted in the minorities’ conversion or exodus and
that, in turn, resulted in this change in the country’s religious
demography.

The study suggests that even after Bangladesh became
independent Islamists have remained active against the minorities there. Because
of their designs and influence in certain dispensations the Bangladeshi Hindus
have faced murder, rape, abduction, forced conversion, land grabs and more,
including a 2009 pogrom behind a Dhaka police station. As a result the number of
the Hindus has continued to fall. Today it is fewer than eight
percent.

The leaders of the democratic world must appreciate the nature
and purpose of the Islamist forces at work in Bangladesh and take all
appropriate measures to checkmate them. The governments of the liberal world are
supposed to advance freedom and democracy everywhere. They cannot afford risking
it in Bangladesh.

The agenda of Bangladeshi Islamists, like that of their
counterparts in other parts of the world, poses a threat not only to Bangladesh
and its citizens but also to the entire civilized world.

Presently,
Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson and former prime minister Khaleda Zia
seems to be backing the Islamists. The leaders of the democratic world could use
their influence with Khaleda Zia to stop her from acting, overtly or covertly,
against the interest of democracy in the country.

One hopes citizens of
India – particularly its Muslims – would remain ever vigilant with regard to the
emerging political scenario in Bangladesh. They played an historic role in the
liberation of the land. On April 7, 1971, Akbar Ali Khan, a member of the Rajya
Sabha, the upper house of the Indian parliament, said that his religion was one
of peace and goodwill. He loathed that in Bangladesh atrocities and injustices
were being perpetrated on a people struggling for freedom and
justice.

Member of Parliament for Kashmir Syed Hussain said what was
happening in Pakistan had already demolished its two-nation theory. Noted
naturalist and conservationist Zafar Futehally said that the Muslims of India
must offer “such relief as lies in their power to offer to the people of East
Bengal.”

Over 200 Muslims demonstrated outside former prime minister
Indira Gandhi’s house on August 6, 1971, to demand the recognition of
Bangladesh.

Jansangh member of the Metropolitan Council Anwar Ali Dehlvi
presented a memorandum to Gandhi. On August 12, 1971, 20 Muslim MPs appealed to
all the Muslim countries and the civilized world to raise their voice against
president Yahya Khan’s acts, which they called “barbarous and against all
ethical values of Islam.”

The citizens of India could use all the fora
available today to convey to the Islamists that they better not try to tamper
with freedom and democracy in Bangladesh. India joined the people of Bangladesh
in 1971 to liberate them from Pakistan and help them achieve this sublime goal
only. The people of India would do it again, if needed.

The author is a
senior Indian Journalist.

Currently, he is a consulting editor to the
Power Politics magazine published out of New Delhi.

Sites Of Interest

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